Do you remember blogrolls? In Canada, we had separate blogrolls for Liberals (Liblogs), Conservatives (Blogging Tories) and so on. Was it meaningful? Not really, because each group was nothing more than an echo chamber, with like-minded people communicating only amongst themselves, without ever exposing themselves to other (and, perhaps, more correct) views.
But once social media like Facebook or Twitter got going, those echo chambers were finally broken up—now you had to put up with other viewpoints from all over the world, whether you liked it or not. Unfortunately, this also gave us more conflict in those online communications, such as “troll wars”. Like with everything else in life, you have to take the good with the bad.
Having variety, especially of different opinions and views, is not only enjoyable, but also highly educational, as it opens the mind to new ideas. It also helps people to learn to agree to disagree without necessarily putting out a contract on anyone who dares to offer up differing opinions.
Human nature, however, seems to gravitate towards echo chambers, the most recent example being Mastodon, a social media platform that groups users into various echo chambers, where they can take comfort in not being exposed to anything that their brains can’t compute.
In fact, Mastodon seems to have become the preferred exile for those who have left Twitter after Elon Musk’s takeover. They claim that their move is motivated by their desire to have an open platform, rather than one that is subject to the whims of a clueless billionaire. Let me tell you: that is a big fat lie.
Those who have jumped ship are not really opposed to Musk. What they’re really doing is taking this opportunity to move away from a truly open platform to one that is simply an echo chamber, Mastodon. In other words, they don’t want to see different views; no, they want to live in a bubble of make-believe. They want to be in a fake environment where nothing they see or read can trigger them.
One such specimen is “Grammar Girl”, a.k.a. Mignon Fogarty, a self-anointed grammar expert. She recently announced her own move to Mastodon, and when people pointed out to her the shortcomings of Mastodon, such as its echo chamber structure, she blocked them. Yes, little Mignon is so mignon (dainty) that she can’t handle other people’s views. That is to say, she’s a snowflake, triggered by any kind of talkback. She won’t last long in the real world.
Frankly, I don’t even know why certain people even bother with social media, because if they are so dainty, so feeble, so weak that a viewpoint or opinion can send them into a coma, why even go there in the first place? Are those people masochists?
The more I see and observe, the more convinced I become that the vast majority of people do want to live in a bubble or echo chamber. Why? Because they are narrow- and closed-minded. And it’s not only true of millennials or Gen Z, but also most people of my generation. You express a simple opinion, and suddenly someone who’s been a member of your network or followers, or even an IRL friend, stops talking to you. Disappears.
Agreeing to disagree is a foreign concept to such people. Personally, I have no problem maintaining relationships with people who hold views different from mine. I like variety, and, yes, sometimes even I can learn something new from such people. For example, I might discover a new angle to an issue and, perhaps, find a better way to understand and analyze it. If I shut myself off from everyone who disagrees with me or with whom I disagree, I’d have no enjoyable and educational variety—no growth.
One of my IRL friends last year shunned me after my announcement on social media that I had taken my Covid shots. Yes, I got my two shots, not because I needed them (I have not seen a doctor in over 30 years, and I am immune to anything and everything), but because I wanted to protect my personal and civil rights (in Québec at the time, we had vaccination passports, and if you wanted to live a normal life, like going to shops or restaurants, you needed to show the passport to gain access; without it, you were forced to remain in lockdown). She, my friend, however, had fallen for all the various conspiracy theories, such as the vaccine containing little nanobots for mind control, and was therefore dead set against those vaccines. I think she was afraid that the vaccine would somehow seep into her body if she continued communicating with me via Facebook. Ridiculous. Childish.
Or I could also name some translators from my network on LinkedIn: after I had expressed some inconvenient truths (and they were all truths, make no mistake about it), some dropped out of my network or unfollowed me. They won’t even respond to messages. No skin off my nose—good riddance to bad rubbish. Hello wheat, goodbye chaff! Thanks for making my job and life this much easier!
To me, those types of people are the most limited specimens of humanity. Oh, he or she said or posted something I don’t agree with at all—quick, I have to block or unfollow that person and never talk to them ever again. I’ll never look at or comment on any of their posts again! I might go blind if I did!
Yes, that is the ultimate in defeating oneself. Shunning (or putting one’s head in the sand) is what ostriches do.
I, for one, will not give up on variety when it comes to exploring different ways of looking at the world. In politics, for example, I read what the left and the right have to say. The same goes for pro-vaxxers and anti-vaxxers or those who believe, or don’t, in “man-made” climate change—I’ll read what you guys have to say with an open mind, and if I do see something that is complete rubbish, you can still be a follower or friend: I won’t hold your views against you.
Update: There was a time when people fell out and avoided each when someone did something really bad, like stealing. Now, they shun each other over opinions expressed on current events. It doesn’t bode well for humanity.